Francophone organizational scholarship has been neglected by Anglophone researchers. The development of the Francophone field can be understood in terms of both epoch and episteme. Three epochs are discernible – foundations, architecture, and building/rebuilding. There are also two epistemes. Relations in the mainstream are either mimetic (seeking to emulate dominant approaches) or characteristic (seeking to maintain the autonomous character of their own work). Relations at the margins can be either singularistic (comfortable in a niche) or configurational (seeking to shape the margins, and the potential development of the future mainstream)
